Israeli officials say defense minister will speak first and there won't be dialogue; Liberman meets with US counterpart James Mattis, tells him Israel's problems are 'Iran, Iran and Iran'

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will together take part in a panel discussion Sunday at the high-level Munich Security Conference, Israeli officials said Friday.

The two are set to take part in a discussion entitled “Old Crises, New Middle East.” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu are the other two participants.

There is no recent precedent for serving senior Israeli and Iranian ministers to share a public platform in this way. Iran repeatedly encourages the demise of what it calls the Zionist regime.

The annual weekend gathering is known for providing an open and informal platform for allies — and adversaries — to meet in close quarters.

Police officers stand in front of the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich, southern Germany, on February 17, 2017, where preparations are under way for the high-profile Munich Security Conference. ( AFP PHOTO / THOMAS KIENZLE)

Liberman’s office said the defense minister was aware that Zarif would be speaking at the same session, but noted that he would “be speaking before the Iranian.”

Also Friday, Liberman held his first meeting with US Secretary of Defense James Mattis on the sidelines of the conference, telling him that Israel has “three main problems that it is dealing with: ‘Iran, Iran and Iran.’”

Following their meeting, they agreed to work “with determination against Iran,” according to Liberman’s office.

In the meeting — their first since Mattis took up his position last month — Liberman called for the creation of a “real and effective” anti-Iran coalition that will tackle “the terrorism that [Iran] sends out to the world, the missile development it has been working on and its race to nuclear armament,” according to a statement from his office.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and his team of security officials, right, sit down with their American counterparts led by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, left, at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, 2017. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Liberman said Iran and North Korea, which has its own nuclear program, are part of the same “axis of evil” that also includes “Hezbollah and the [Bashar] Assad regime in Syria.”

In their first in-person conversation, the defense chiefs said they intended to have “open and frank” lines of communication to improve cooperation, according to Liberman’s office.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman shakes hands with US Secretary of Defense James Mattis at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, 2017. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Liberman and Mattis had previously spoken only by phone. The two spoke on January 26, soon after Mattis was confirmed by the US Senate as secretary of defense. Then too they spoke about the need to “advance the US-Israeli defense relationship” and also to “protect Israel’s qualitative military edge.”

The unusual meeting between Liberman and Zarif comes as Israel and Iran have accused each other of threatening world peace.

Netanyahu told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that although he was the most outspoken against the Iran nuclear deal, Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were quietly saying the same thing.

“The Arab countries sort of whisper things in the dark; they wouldn’t say it outright,” he said. “I had to sort of speak out for everyone in the region.”

“Iran has become more aggressive, more deadly, sponsoring more terrorism,” Netanyahu, who was visiting the US, told Hannity. “With more money. And people are saying ‘wait a minute, this roaring tiger, if it’s not stopped, it will devour all of us.”

Meanwhile, Iran on Thursday said Israel’s reported nuclear arsenal was the biggest threat to world peace. Israel is the “biggest threat to the peace and security in the region and the world,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

Much of the attention at this year’s meeting has focused on world leaders getting their first opportunity to meet with members of the Trump administration amid concerns over the new president’s commitment to NATO and posture toward Russia.

Vice President Mike Pence, Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly are leading the US delegation to the conference, which opened Friday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, European Council President Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg are among the group of more than 30 heads of state and government, 80 foreign and defense ministers and other officials expected to attend.

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